France, April 6-9, 2004

Stage 4 - April 9: Evron - Le Mans, 181 km

A champion is born: Thomas Lövkvist

Until today, two riders had won the Circuit de la Sarthe aged 20: Bernard
Hinault in 1975 and Greg LeMond in 1980. Now, the world of cycling welcomes
Thomas Lövkvist! The Swede turned 20 last Sunday and celebrated his birthday
in a typical bowls players society of the Loire valley, writing in the golden
book: "I'm happy to discover another side of France."

Since he joined French outfit Fdjeux.com, his life has been full of new experiences:
he discovered the big cycling pro world in Australia at the Jacob's Creek Tour
Down Under, set himself with Australian stars Brad McGee, Baden Cooke, Matt
Wilson and Mark Renshaw in Nice and made his debut in Paris-Nice, something
unusual for neo-professionals.

Marc Madiot is already fond of him. "Physically and mentally, this guy has
all the qualities to become a super champion", he said. The boss of Fdjeux.com
got to know him at the Tour de l'Avenir last year where he finished 6th overall
after wearing the yellow jersey. Before that, with Team Bianchi Scandinavia
directed by Tommy Prim, he had won the Circuit des Ardennes, which was almost
his first race after the junior category! Later he came 4th at the U23 world
championship time trial.

Lövkvist won the Circuit de la Sarthe-Pays de la Loire in a 171 km breakaway,
covering 150 alone after getting rid of his companion, the first attacker of
the day who was no less but Christophe Moreau. "He wasn't going fast enough",
Lövkvist commented. The tall Swede hailing from the island of Gotland had a
maximum lead of 13 minutes and still had 5'30 advantage on the bunch when he
reached the final circuit of Le Mans, where he had to climb the gruelling côte
de Gazonfier four times.

"The last time, I almost fell, I was so tired," he explained. "I went backwards
I think. Then I looked in direction to the top and I said to myself: 'yes, you
can do it'." Everyone was impressed by his courage. He was also very clever
not to put his hands up before he crossed the line because he was able to win
the overall as well as the stage. He knew it would be tight.

Strangely there was a lot of misunderstanding in the chasing group with La
Boulangère not getting much of help from the other teams. "I'll remember it
in the future, a bitter former race leader Franck Bouyer commented. But I pass
on my congratulations to the winner, what he did was great."

It's a huge breath of fresh air for French cycling to see a pure young talent
winning in a great manner when the headlines are only made of doping affairs.
"With all the tests we have to do now, I hope the sport will be clean very soon,"
Lövkvist declared. "From my side, the only thing I can do is to keep riding
drug free."

If the future is based around athletes like Lövkvist, cycling has a few fabulous
years coming up.